The giant redwood was planted by John Dillwyn Llewelyn in 1842 ALAMYA housing developer ordered one of Britain’s oldest giant redwoods to be cut down in a deliberate and defiant breach of a protection order. Fiorenzo Sauro, the director of Enzo Homes, ordered the destruction of the “irreplaceable” 176-year-old tree that bordered land on which he wanted to develop a housing estate. Sauro, 49, claimed that the felling of 72 protected trees in November last year, one of which was the 90ft redwood, had been an accident but he was found guilty of ordering their destruction after a trial at Swansea magistrates’ court. The tree, on the Penllergare Estate in Swansea, was 90ft tallDistrict Judge Neale Thomas, in a written judgment released before sentencing, said that Sauro’s protestations of innocence were “hollow”. “He was not a convincing witness at all,” the judge said.

Source: The Times October 10, 2019 23:01 UTC